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Article: Toppling of a tyrant; The fall of Riccardo Muti at La Scala could herald a new dawn for Italian opera.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 23, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: NORMAN LEBRECHT
LA SCALA this past week has been like the Kremlin during the putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev. For days on end, no one knew who was in charge or what was going on.
The only certainty, even when Gorby returned in a lame-duck role, was that the world would never be the same again.
Riccardo Muti is gone from La Scala, that much is clear. Omnipotent for 19 years, the music director walked out when the company rose up against his ousting of an internally popular sovrintendente (general manager), Carlo Fontana, and his replacement by the more pliant Mauro Meli. Muti, affronted, declared that he could no longer make music in ...